The longing she felt for Sabrina created a physical ache in Lilly’s chest. Almost everything to do with her mother had been hard and confusing, even when she was alive. Now that she was gone, that hadn’t changed. “She made Italy sound like a pretty cool place,” she said. “And I like pizza.”
Charlotte laughed. “There’s the silver lining!”
“The... what?”
“It means something good coming from something that’s also difficult—a part you can be happy about.”
She no longer had to start over and over again as Sabrina met one man after the other—no longer had to worry about another “father” spying on her like Walter had done. That had to be a silver lining. But with her mother’s death, her life had gotten worse, not better. Maybe Sabrina hadn’t been totally reliable, but now Lilly hadno oneto look out for her.
“Luca said you write books,” Lilly stated.
“I’ve written only one—and I need to write another.”
“But you’re famous?”
“Not really. It’s my soon-to-be ex-husband who’s famous.”
“Clifford Jackson with the Lakers.”
“Luca told you about him, too?”
Lilly was glad Charlotte had brought Clifford into the conversation because she hadn’t dared to, didn’t want to make Charlotte feel bad since it sounded like it was Clifford who wanted the divorce. “Yeah. Luca said you were rich.” Luca had actually said that Charlotte could take care of her because she had more money than she knew what to do with. But Lilly didn’t add that part.
“Cliffis rich,” Charlotte clarified. “But we’re no longer together, and we weren’t married very long, so he’s keeping mostof his money. I moved in with my parents before I left the States. Being single again is still very new, and it feels... odd.”
Lilly didn’t know what to say. If Cliff was keeping most of his money, that couldn’t be good for her. And she could hear the sadness in Charlotte’s voice, didn’t want to make it worse. Once her mother had split up with whoever she was seeing she’d never wanted to speak of him again. Was it the same with Charlotte? “Sorry. You said I could ask anything,” she mumbled.
“I did, and I meant it. You can always talk to me, even about Cliff. The divorce won’t be easy, but grief has a cycle. Did you know that? You go through stages, and you hang on through those stages hoping that, in the end, things will get better.”
“Willthey get better?” Lilly desperately wanted someone to promise her the grief and fear she felt would go away, because everything in her life just seemed to get worse.
“I believe it will,” Charlotte replied. “But I’m not going to promise you anything. I can’t say something just to make you feel better. I want you to know that if I say something you can count on it, okay?”
Those words weren’t the promise she’d been hoping for, but they seemed honest, and that made it easier to trust Charlotte. “Okay.”
Water dripped from Charlotte’s hand as she lifted it to gesture around them. “Why don’t you tell me about this little town?”
“I can see why my mother liked it,” she replied. “She loved being by the ocean.”
“What do you like here?”
“The pizza.”
“Of course,” Charlotte said with a grin. “Sounds like that hasn’t let you down.”
“No. The pasta is good, too,” Lilly added. “So is the lemonsorbetto. They serve it in a giant lemon.”
“I’ve never seen that in the US.”
“I think you can only find it here—but it’s all over the Amalfi Coast.”
“I’ll definitely have to try it. Pizza, pasta and gelato, huh? I’m afraid I’m going to gain quite a bit of weight this month!”
This lighthearted talk made Lilly feel like she could breathe again. She hadn’t even realized she’d been holding her breath, but the tightness of her chest eased just enough that she no longer felt sick.
Charlotte scooped a dead bug out of the water and tossed it over the side. “What’s your favorite restaurant?”
“I don’t remember the name, but I know where it is,” Lilly told her. “It’s in Positano.”
